novelraw Chapter 542: Route Decision
Chapter 542: Route Decision
Chapter 542: Route Decision
The light of the teleportation array faded, and Jie Ming stepped firmly onto solid ground, standing outside the spatial teleportation array of the Infernal Sulfur plane.
He took a deep breath.
The air was filled with the familiar scent of sulfur, mixed with a faint heat from the lava.
This smell had once made him extremely uncomfortable, but now it brought a trace of nostalgia.
He hadn’t expected that this mission would end up lasting a full fifty years in one go.
Jie Ming stood in place, gazing at the distant flowing lava river, feeling somewhat dazed.
He shook his head, pulled back his thoughts, and headed toward the laboratory.
That said, these fifty years had not been wasted for him.
Although the reception work in the Els plane had been tedious, most of the time he only needed to keep an eye on the progress. He had used the opportunity to settle down and thoroughly go through all the knowledge crystals he had never had time to study in detail.
His current level of knowledge should have reached that of a veteran fourth-ring wizard.
Jie Ming silently assessed himself in his mind.
He was still quite far from the average standard of a fifth-ring wizard.
After all, many fifth-ring wizards calculated their study time in “millennia.”
Even if not all of that time was spent studying, the gap in study time between Jie Ming and a proper fifth-ring wizard was still significant.
These fifty years of intensive cramming had only pulled his weaknesses from “utterly unbearable” to “barely passable.”
“The wizard side’s knowledge is barely sufficient,” Jie Ming planned in his heart. “Next, I can free up some time to focus on the knowledge of the immortal cultivation civilization.”
His mastery of the Spiritual Qi Law had been stuck above twenty percent for a long time.
To continue improving it, he would need to invest a large amount of time in research and comprehension.
As he walked, he calculated his future plans in his mind.
There were still many areas in the Incense Fire Divine Dao that could be improved.
The cross-spatial energy transmission system had exposed several problems during the previous war; now was the perfect time to adjust it.
His accumulation of knowledge was already sufficient. Next, he should choose a direction within the fifth-ring knowledge system for in-depth study.
Unknowingly, he had already reached the laboratory entrance.
The laboratory doors opened automatically, and the sound of rustling footsteps came from inside.
More than a dozen Black Giant Priests came forward to greet him, each holding a stack of recording crystals densely marked with various data.
“Master, you have returned.”
The leading Black Giant Priest bowed in greeting.
Jie Ming nodded and sat down in the main seat of the laboratory.
“Tell me, what has happened over these years.”
The leading Black Giant Priest stepped forward and began the report.
First was the operation of the Incense Fire Divine Dao.
The number of believers had grown steadily, and the output of Incense Divine Power had increased by 3% compared to fifty years ago.
The Incense Fire Divine Dao was running stably, but in recent years a problem of relatively high energy conversion loss had been discovered. They hoped to allocate resources for inspection.
Next was the reproduction and management of the Black Giant Legion.
The number of Black Giants in the Infernal Sulfur plane had exceeded ten billion, with over one hundred thousand individuals above sixth level.
The legion’s discipline and combat effectiveness had both improved, but resource consumption had also increased accordingly. They needed the master to decide whether to control the scale.
Then came resource reserves and experimental progress.
The seventh-level large element pool was operating normally, with sufficient energy reserves.
Jie Ming listened while quickly processing this information in his mind.
The Incense Fire Divine Dao system indeed needed adjustments.
When he had designed it back then, he had only been at the second ring, so many details were not perfect.
Now was the perfect time to resolve all those lingering issues at once.
As for the scale of the Black Giant Legion…
“No need to control it for now,” Jie Ming said. “Continue reproduction, but ensure resource allocation keeps up. Screen out individuals with insufficient combat effectiveness and assign them to the logistics sequence.”
The Black Giant Priest nodded and made a note on the recording crystal.
The report lasted nearly an hour. Once all matters had been handled, Jie Ming was about to dismiss them when the Black Giant Priest leader stepped forward again.
“Master, there is one more matter.”
“Speak.”
Molten Mountain handed over a recording crystal. “It is regarding the secondary analysis data of biological tissues you instructed us to perform earlier.”
Jie Ming took the crystal and sent his spiritual power into it.
The crystal stored a massive amount of dissection records, tissue section images, and energy reaction test data.
These were research materials he had accumulated during his second- and third-ring wizard periods.
Back then, in order to increase his knowledge reserves, he had frantically dissected various creatures. Almost all the creatures he had brought back from the Void Domain plane had been dissected by him.
However, his level at the time had been limited, so many of the dissection studies had been rather crude.
Later, after advancing to fourth-ring and then fifth-ring, he had been constantly busy, so these materials had been set aside.
It was only decades ago that he remembered to have the Black Giant Priests re-examine them using more mature techniques to re-analyze those biological tissues.
As Jie Ming browsed through the data, his expression suddenly shifted slightly.
His gaze stopped on a particular analysis result.
It was research data concerning “the bodily structure of the Black Giant leader Molten Mountain.”
Back then, he had wanted to study Molten Mountain’s body structure, but due to insufficient knowledge reserves, he had only performed some basic tests before setting it aside.
Now, looking at this data, the related thoughts rose in his mind once again.
“So this is actually a good direction,” Jie Ming murmured.
He continued reading, and the more he read, the clearer his ideas became.
Biological modification… it was indeed suitable as a priority area for fifth-ring knowledge research.
The three cannon-fodder units he had created, Black Giants, Nests, and Prowlers, up to now, only the Black Giants had truly proven useful. The Nests and Prowlers had originally been designed as naval and aerial combat units.
But over these many years, they had hardly participated in any decent battles.
The Prowlers had undergone two rounds of modification, but their strength still couldn’t keep up with the pace of the Black Giants.
Especially after the Black Giants integrated into the Incense Fire Divine Dao system of the Infernal Sulfur plane, their growth speed had increased dramatically, leaving the Prowlers far behind.
As for the Nests…
Jie Ming recalled.
Aside from a few tests right after their creation, they had never been used again.
Later, once the internal cave-heaven technology matured, the automatic factories within the cave-heaven had completely replaced the Nests’ function as biological warships.
Now, the Nests had almost zero presence.
Jie Ming put down the recording crystal and fell into deep thought.
Since he was going to study biological modification-related knowledge next, he might as well use the Nests and Prowlers as practice.
On one hand, it would improve his own knowledge level and prepare for future research on Molten Mountain’s body structure. On the other hand, these two units really did need upgrading and replacement.
“Then it’s decided. The next research direction will mainly focus on biological modification.”
“First, I’ll start with the fifth-ring wizard knowledge system and go through all the theories related to biological modification.” Jie Ming paused. “At the same time, I’ll begin designing upgrade plans for the Nests and Prowlers.”